


a kind-hearted boy

by mewrobot



Category: End Roll (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-23 05:53:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10713528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mewrobot/pseuds/mewrobot
Summary: Another several-month-old short drabble. The Informant gets sick and Russell is nice to him.





	a kind-hearted boy

“How did you even catch anything?” Russell asks, his hand pressed to the Informant’s warm forehead. “No one in town’s been sick, and you don’t go out at all.”

The Informant coughs, and shudders a bit. When Russell had walked into the infor!Mashun building, the Informant had announced that he was taking the day off due to a cold. Turns out he wasn’t just being lazy or messing around; he was in fact rather pale and nearly every sentence he said was punctuated with a cough or sneeze.

Russell backs up a little bit.

“Maybe it’s just too drafty in here…” the Informant responds, and then smiles darkly. “Or maybe your growing guilt is causing sickness within your mind?”

It’s hard to take his comments about guilt and ruined dreamscapes seriously with that stuffed-up voice. Russell only blinks at that, and says, “Why haven’t you gone to see Kantera? He’d fix it pretty fast.” The Informant looks a bit surprised, and then looks away uncomfortably.

“I can’t go to see him, you know why.” the Informant says. Russell really doesn’t know, but listens silently.

The Informant continues, “It’s the same reason I don’t see anyone else in town. I know, I remember, deeper than you do. Or at least deeper than you do right now.”

The Informant lets out a sigh that turns into another cough, and curls up into himself on the couch. He looks pretty miserable. Russell also takes a seat on the couch, just a little ways away from the Informant, and gingerly pats him on the head.

“Wh-What are you doing?” The Informant asks, with a small chuckle.

“I don’t wanna catch what you’ve got, so I can’t get too close. But you looked sad,” Russell answers, still half-petting the Informant’s head. He then looks at the Informant thoughtfully for a minute. “Hang on. I’ll be back.”

Russell gets up and out of the infor!Mashun building, with an odd hurriedness.

The Informant just answers with a mumbled “alright” while Russell is already halfway out the door.

“What do you have for colds?” Russell asks Kantera as soon as he gets into the clinic, forgoing any greeting. “Oh, and good morning.”

“Good morning to you, Russell.” Kantera says, with his sleepy smile. He begins to look through his stock, and asks, “Colds, hm? You seem perfectly healthy to me… is someone else feeling ill?”

“Yeah. The Informant’s sick.”

“The boy in the ‘info-mashun’ building? …It really is odd how you two look so much alike.”

“We, just, uh, go to the same hair place. And the same clothes store.”

Kantera smiles amusedly, with raised eyebrows. “I see. Well, you can give this to him. It won’t cure him, of course, but it will keep the symptoms down for a while.” He hands Russell a small bottle of greenish capsules. Russell fishes a few Walnuts out of his pocket and hands them to Kantera before leaving. (Kantera never specified a price, but he accepts the three Walnuts anyway.)

Russell heads to Gardenia’s big vegetable-shaped house next. It always kind of bothered him how Cody the plant expert lived in a cake house while Gardenia the cook lived in a plant house, but that’s beside the point.

“Good morning Gardenia,” he says, noting that it’s just one regular, chipper-as-ever Gardenia in the house. “You don’t happen to have any soups, or anything like that?”

“Ohh? Soups?” Gardenia repeats, looking up from the Rootie she was chopping into small pieces. “I actually could make one right now! I’ve been meaning to use this for something like that… just wait here, I’ll make it for you!”

Russell sits patiently at the table, offering to help once, but Gardenia insists that she make it all herself. He feels a bit bad that he’s just sitting here while the Informant’s still sick and alone back at the information shop. Hm. The dream really is giving his feelings more depth, making them more tangible. He would have rarely done something like this back in the waking world, before this experiment. He guesses this is what it’s like to care about someone, and to care for yourself too.

“Okay, it’s ready!” Gardenia announces, looking rather pleased with her work. She pours the soup into a container, and then puts it in a bag with some plastic spoons. She then hands rhe bag to Russell with a smile. “Careful, it’s piping hot… Hope you enjoy!”

He doesn’t say that it’s not for him this time, but thanks her, also leaving a few Walnuts.

“Alright, I brought you some things.” Russell says, reentering the information shop. The Informant, curled up on the couch and looking thoroughly sick and sad, sits up slowly, groaning.

“Whhat?” the Informant murmurs, apparently just waking up from a brief nap. “I told you, I’m not doing any information-giving today–”

He’s interrupted by Russell pushing the medicine and Gardenia’s to-go bag towards him. “Here. It’s medicine for colds, and also hot soup. That should help out, right?”

The Informant looks unsure how to react to this offering, but he accepts it. He pops one of the capsules into his mouth, wincing a bit at the taste of it.

“Wow, Russell… the experiment must working after all. You’re becoming a good boy.” the Informant says, chuckling. “…Thanks.” His smile seems softer, kinder.

“It’s no problem. I just figured… I’ve always wanted people to take care of me like that so I figured you would want the same too. I think you deserve that.”

“Ahh.. right. That sort of soft care that neither of us really had… with soups and blankets and such.”

The Informant pops open the other container and tastes the soup. “Wow, that’s pretty good stuff, actually. Why haven’t you brought me any of Gardenia’s cooking before?”

“Y-You never asked.”

The Informant places the container on a side table and motions for Russell to come sit with him again. Russell comes to the realization that it doesn’t really matter if he gets sick in the Happy Dream anyway, so he sits down, closer this time. The Informant swings an arm around Russell, pulling him closer. Russell gets comfortable, resting on the Informant’s shoulder. Being like this is comforting and warm, all the things he’s wanted before. He wraps his own arms around the Informant, hugging him tight.

“You’re really a good kid, Russell. No matter what, I’ll still think that about you in the end.” the Informant says, his voice lacking its typical sardonic tone.

Hearing that from him, Russell actually starts to believe it.


End file.
